Alternative Institutional Structures
Evolution and Impact

Offers a collection of essays that explores several approaches to understanding the impact of alternative legal-economic institutions. This collection investigates questions such as: What are the similarities and differences among the various strands and approaches? And do different analytical problems require different approaches?

In gathering together authors who represent different approaches or strands of institutionalism, this book addresses several different issues such as transactions as the unit of observation, bounded rationality and learning, power issues embedded in the concept of efficiency, comparative empirical analysis, multiple equilibria and institutional diversity within a given environment, specification of institutional rules and structures, evolutionary perspectives, decentralized processes, and the significance of historical content.

CONTENTS, Foreword, "Nicholas Mercuro and Sandra S. Batie", Chapter 1 - Power and the Troublesome Economist: Complementarities Among Recent Institutional Theorists, "A. Allan Schmid", Chapter 2- Some Problems in Assessing the Evolution and Impact of Institutions, "Warren J. Samuels", Chapter 3 - Developing a Method for Analyzing Institutional Change, "Elinor Ostrom", Chapter 4 - Does Economic Development Require "Certain" Property Rights?, "Peter J. Boettke and J. Robert Subrick", Chapter 5 - Institutional Economics as Volitional Pragmatism, "Daniel W. Bromley", Chapter 6 - Institutions and Rationality, "Arild Vatn", Chapter 7 - Simplicity in Institutional Design, "Nathan Berg", Chapter 8 - The Essence of Economics -- Law, Participation and Institutional Choice (Two Ways), "Neil Komesar", Chapter 9 - Is Law Facilitating or Inhibiting Transactions?, "Claude Menard", Chapter 10 - On Institutional Individualism as a Middle-way Mode of Explanation for Approaching Organizational Issues, "Fernando Toboso", Chapter 11 - The Role of Attitudes in Action and Institutional Change -- An Evolutionary Perspective, "Uta-Maria Niederle", Chapter 12 - Post-Keynesian Institutionalism and the Anxious Society, "Charles J. Whalen", Chapter 13 - Towards a Theory of Induced Institutional Change: Power, Labor Markets, and Institutional Change, "Morris Altman," Chapter 14 - The Instituted Nature of Market Information: the Case of Induced Innovation and Environmental Regulation, "Patricia E. Norris, David B. Schweikhardt, and Eric A. Scorsone", Chapter 15 - The Role of Culture and Social Norms in Theories of Institutional Change: The Case of Agricultural Cooperatives, "Julie A. Hogeland", Chapter 16 - Payment for Environmental Services and Other Institutions for Protecting Drinking Water in Eastern Costa Rica, "Michael D. Kaplowitz, Daniel V. Ortega-Pacheco, and Frank Lupi, "Chapter 17 - A Dialogue on Institutions: Assessing the Evolution and Impact of Alternative Institutional Structures, "edited by Nicholas Mercuro and Sandra S. Batie", Contributors, Index